1。2 A Brief Introduction to The Moon and Sixpence 来自优I尔Y论S文C网WWw.YoueRw.com 加QQ7520~18766

The Moon and Sixpence is a novel created by Maugham in 1919。 The book is based on the life of the French impressionist paint Gauguin。 This novel with the first person narrative technique, tells the story of the protagonist Strickland in pursuit of artistic and giving up the good life, from a London stock exchange broker become a wandering artist, settled in Tahiti, and created the immortal paintings of the story。 He is placed on the task of showing the soul of the novel, and became a pioneer in exploring the road of life salvation。 From the perspective of conflict of ideals and the reality, this paper analyzes the process of the protagonist Strickland’s pursuing ideal art, as well as the social reality which he has to face, meanwhile, it also explores the contradiction between the artistic ideal and the realistic demand。

The “moon” symbolizes the glories, untrammeled and unreal spiritual world that people within sight but beyond reach; while “sixpence” means the complicated and hypocritical material world with numerous living beings。 This work exactly expresses the spirit and the substance, the beauty and the evil, and the contradiction between ideal and reality。 After the advent of the novel, with the vivid plot and profound text in the literary world, it attracts all the people to read the legend。

2。 Literature Review

2。1 Foreign studies on The Moon and Sixpence论文网

Maugham is a controversial writer in literary history。 He is known as Britain's Maupassant, but has never been mentioned in the history of English literature。 His works is first widely spread in other western countries, such as France, Spain and Turkey。 His satirical works is full of compassion and sympathy, life and works are always controversial。 

The Moon and Sixpence is one of the most controversial works。 Whether it is the theme of the novel or the relationship between Gauguin and the life of Maugham, which is all full of controversy。 Throughout the research status at home and abroad, the foreign research field mainly focused on the characters, themes, gender, narrative angle and psychological analysis。 For example, Leonard Moskovit pointed out that from the perspective of characters in this novel, role is a kind of superficial, profound character。 

Compared with the characters in the novel, the theme of the novel's structure is more entertaining and fun。 The theme of The Moon and Sixpence has also aroused the interest of critics。 For example, Jack Collins, Klaus W。 Jonas, Theodore Spencer and Woodburn O。 Ross have analyzed The Moon and Sixpence from the theme of Maugham's fictions。 According to their study, living the dream has always been distorted by modern materialistic values。 Study on the gender perspective, Viraraghavan, Chitra discussed the relationship between gender and trauma in the presentation of the novel。 She pointed out that Maugham is contradictory and biased in dealing with sex。 Since the two world war that make people's beliefs collapse, therefore, the psychological analysis of the novel is also very common。 In the prose of Richard A。 Cordell, the psychological pressure is used to show the story space, which is very obvious in The moon and sixpence。

2。2 Domestic studies on The Moon and Sixpence

The works of Maugham is first introduced into China in 1930。 In 1980, Chinese scholars start to pay more attention to the works of Maugham, with the emergence of the "Maugham"。 For the domestic research on The Moon and Sixpence, mainly concentrated in the study of the theme, narrative skills, artistic characteristics, Existentialism, symbolism, the relationship between Maugham's life and the novel and the relationship of Gauguin and novels。 

The theme of the study of The Moon and Sixpence is self realization, freedom and spiritual pursuit。 In the article Pursuit of Self - Reading The Moon and Sixpence, the author thinks that The Moon and Sixpence show us the journey from self to genius and shows us the collision between western civilization and eastern civilization and the fresh relationship between art and love(Lu 75-78)。 In the unique narrative techniques, many researchers use the narrative theory to interpret the typical narrative characteristics。 Including the unique narrative, research and other aspects of the anti climax。 The main research aspects of artistic features are the features of language, the shaping of characters and personality。 The main research of Existentialism is Really Free? -- From Sutter's Existentialism to Interpret The Moon and Sixpence of Li Rui, from the perspective of existentialism to explain human nature problems and the pursuit of the meaning of human beings(Li 40-41)。